PRESSUREPRESSUREPRESSURE

As teenagers, we're pressured a lot. We're expected to do and be many things. 
Like what? Well, there's school-related pressures. My mom always says "School is your job." She emphasizes on it a lot. Don't slack, don't wait till the last minute, work hard, study hard, blah, blah (if you read this somehow, mudder, I love you... you don't sound like "blah blah," you sound like "bruck yuh stupidee." =D ) Many of our parents want us to be doctors or lawyers. We just have to do well in school. Our entire lives depend on it, they say. If we slack now, we'll end up as a bum later. Pass the SAT and ACT with flying colors. Get Straight A's. God forbid, don't ever be late to class or get in trouble. There is a lot of pressure on good behavior in school.  Then, go to college and get a freaking awesome degree (in something practical, of course). 
 Needless to say, there's a lot of pressure from our parents, family, and teachers to exceed in school. Everything depends on it. I have to admit, I'm a little intimidated by all of it. I think many of us are. 
 Then, there's social pressures. Peer pressure. I can't really say I'm ever pressured into anything specifically. I suppose social pressures would include fitting in (not being too outrageous), being polite, not being too anti-social, not being too social or clingy.. There are typical examples of peer pressure such as "drink this! ALCOHOL IS FOR COOL PEOPLE" or "LET'S ALL GET HIGH. I BELIEVE I CAN FLLYYYYYYYYYYYY," but like my fellow Step-Up..er Claude says, not all peer pressure is negative. You could influence a friend to stop these bad habits as well. And, let's face it, we all attempt to sway people to do certain things. Social pressures such as not acting like a rude jerk isn't such a bad thing. 

I HATE MYSELF.

 For some reason, many teens are afflicted with self-hate. Maybe you're not tall enough. Or skinny enough. Smart enough. Maybe you just plain suck. How do you deal with it? You don't know how. You don't know what to do. You just take your hate out on yourself.
(I don't really think you suck. I love you... the "you" wasn't as in "you" who's reading this but...yeah)
 My group (Sydney, Tajin, myself) is researching the connection between popular culture and teen depression. 
For example, women are objectified in the media. We all know this. We're supposed to be these lovely, beautiful, perfect creatures. But beautiful women come in all shapes and sizes in real life. However, because of the way we're portrayed on-screen, men and women alike expect differently. The scale of beauty is a 90lb, 6ft supermodel for everyone.
 How do teenage girls react to this, not being able to live up to those standards?
Well, by puking their lungs out, of course. 
Another example is the emo subculture. 
Emos are stereotyped for cutting themselves. Cutting is a type of self injury. The emo subculture glorifies cutting, and celebrates it as "okay." No, it's really not okay. But that's popular culture for you, glorifying what (in reality) is a stupid mistake. 
And, come on, let's not forget cyber-bullying. Popular media such as facebook easily allows this. 
The topic may sound a bit vague now, but we plan on pulling it together more within our actual project. 
Within the U.S., one in every 200 girls between 13 and 19 cut themselves, compromising 70 percent of girls who self injure. 
90% of those with eating disorders are women between 12 and 25. Thousands of boys are afflicted with these disorders as well (but it's mostly women).
I'd rather not continue blatantly copying statistics off of websites, so instead, I'll link it to you. 
http://www.teendepression.org/stats/teenage-depression-statistics/